Arkarda Durumov sat back in his chair. The spy secretary that hehad in the ranks of the political leaders told him that the UNSC wasin turmoil. That was what Communists do best, he thought. We spreadturmoil. He rose from his padded leather chair and crossed to thewindow of his office in the main command bunker. He inhaled deeply,invigorated over what he was about to do. Fighters roared out of thehangers to go onto routine patrols, tanks and jeeps rolled across theperimeter of the base, and grunts ran exercises. A Spartan's armorgleamed in the sunlight. "Mine," he said to the room. "They are all mine. And more." Hechuckled to himself as he hit the intercom button, "Katka, announce that I will make a speech to the men on the hour."It was time. "Yes, sir," came the garbled reply.

>One hour later< Spartan Adam 387 stood at attention in the ranks of all the othermen gathered for the Magistrate's speech. Something in his gut toldhim that something was wrong. Call it a Captain's instinct. He lookedat his teammates, Steven 645, Emily 792, Daniel 321, and Chesley 511.He was proud of them all. They had done the best in training, in caseanother alien threat came to the attention of mankind. He hoped thatthis would be a short speech, congratulating them all on their goodwork. "My good men of New Reach," Durumov began, "I have startling news."Immediately, Adam could tell that something was amiss. The Magistratelooked stricken, but something registered his shocked appearance asfalse. "The UNSC has deserted us. They are afraid of our militarypower here. They have decided to leave you all and to make us anindependent colony. They have done the same to New Rome, Avalon, andthe Vienna's Pride colony. This is a shock to you as much as it is tome. But it could not have come at a more inopportune time. When itset us free, to make our own government, it declared war uppon us." Everyone stood even straighter than usual at this news. Adamespecially. He had studied human emotion and intellect for some time.He knew that the Magistrate was lying. However, he couldn't revealthis at his speech. Even as he thought these things, the Magistratecontinued on his sob story. "No telling who will fall for this crap,"he whispered to himself. "...However, my comrades, we will rise to defeat our oppressors,who are at this very hour coming to kill us. We and the othercolonies have made our govornment. We are the USSSR. We will continuethe grand tradition of serving our government. All shall be equal. Weshall rise to destroy these dogs. However, we have solved the workproblem. If a man does not work, he will be shot. None are to bedisloyal to the USSSR. Now, comrades, go and prepare yourselves forthe battles to come. To his horror, all but a few began to cheer, andscurried to get to their posts. Adam looked over at his teammates.The had not cheered. Adam signaled his team to follow him. Theynodded as they headed for a private sniper bunker. No one evermonitored the snipers. No one ever dared to.

When the magistrate entered his office, his secretary stood atattention. "Sir," she said, "You have a holoconference on line 3. Thecallers are our comrades from the New Rome, Avalon, and Vienna'sPride colonies." "Thank you, Katka." It was a glorious day in history. Finally, hehad found a way to make Communism work. If a man did not work,neither did he live. Inside his office, the room was dark. Onlythree holograms lit the room. Durumov took his usual seat. "My dearcommrades."

Inside the sniper bunker, some very uncommunistic talking was goingon. "There's something wrong with this," Adam mused, "The UNSCwouldn't say, you're free, now we're gonna kick your butt." "You're right. The President and his board of advisors would nevercommit such an act," Emily said as she stared into the scope. Steventook a long draw from his coffin nail. "Durumov's crappin'. He and those other colonies were probablyplanning this. They just waited till they had the resources and themen to do this," he said as the smouldering butt fell from hisfingers. "I'm not so sure," Chesley said, "What he said sounded prettyconvincing." "Duh, he sounded convincing. He wouldn't be able to gain all thosesoldier's trust without sounding like he meant it," Daniel spat. "Look," Adam said before Chesley could find a rebuttal, "Whether hemeant it or not is irrelevant. He's wrong. He's gonna get his warmachine cranked up, and take out the UNSC with all the power he andthe other colonies have. We need to stop him, somehow." "Yeah," Steven croaked, "We should tell the other Spartans and gokick his..." "NO!" Adam yelled. Quickly lowering his voice and looking around,he said, "The other Spartans might have bought into his story. Wecan't risk that and get caught before an all out war breaks outacross the galaxy. We have to do this ourselves. We'll fight aguerilla war the way John 117 did on Halo. It's the only chance. Weneed to wear them down." He looked at the floor. "Much as I hate tokill men that were once my own." "Then that's settled," Daniel said as he rose from his seat,"What's the plan, Capt.?" "Well, it's relatively simple..."

Mike Thurmond hated having to stand guard at the supply depot.Nothing ever happened. Suddenly, Five figures, gleaming in themoonlight, strode towards him. He raised his assault rifle andbarked, "Halt! Identify yourselves!" A calm voice said, "At ease, Private. We're just doing a routineinspection of the place. You can lower your weapon. I'm Captain Adam387." He handed the private his id card. "This is my squad. They'reassisting me. Should be out of your way soon." "Ok," Mike said, "Here's your id, sir. Thank you." Adam nodded a"you're welcome," then entered the room. Weaponry and ammunitionlined the walls, along with survival gear and food. "Put all you can into these bags," he whispered as he dropped eightduffel bags on the floor. They loaded assault rifles, sniper rifles,rocket launchers, pistols, grenades, ammunition, survival equipmentand all the food that they could into the bags. When the bags werebulging, Adam said, "Alright, let's blow this joint."

Ten minutes later, that was exactly whay they did. Steve fired aquick rocket into the supply depot, dropped the rocket launcher, andran off base. Adam put his binoculars down and and talked into hiscommunicator. "7-11 is up in flames. Guys, let's snag some vehichles."Three red lights blinked in acknowledgement. They ran across basewith the other shocked troopers, but while the others ran to thewreckage, they ran to the hanger. Chesley jumped into a tank, whileemily leapt into the passenger side of the jeep, sniper rifle at theready. Daniel jumped in back, and Adam drove. When both vehichleswere far out, Chesley turned the tank and fired repeatedly on thehanger, which collapsed after two well placed shots. "Let's high tail it!" Adam called into his communicator. Threeklics out, with enemies on their tails, they picked up Steven, nowhefting a shotgun. Bullets pinged everywhere as Daniel, Steve, andonce in a while Chesley, returned fire. Men flew, bullets tornthrough their flesh, or charred from the tank's main cannon. Finally,the Colonel in command of the Charge ordered the men to retreat. Allof the team members cheered, victorious, but not unscathed. Once,Steven's shield had been decimated by enemies, and he had a bulletgraze his side. It didn't bleed, but it stung. After two more hoursof travel, they made camp for the night. "Good job, guys," Adam said,"We gave them something to think about. Now, let the United SpartanGuerilla Front prevail!" They all held up their water packets totoast their vow. They knew that the batlles to come would be vicious,and that victories such as this one would be sweet. Twenty minuteslater, all five Spartans were fast asleep under a star and moonlitsky.